A minimax theorem for chain complete ordered sets (Q1109795)

A cutset of an ordered set P is a subset S of P which meets every maximal chain in P. For any natural number k denote P(k) and Q(k) the following properties of P. P(k): P contains at most k pairwise disjoint maximal chains; Q(k): P contains a cutset with k elements. It is clear that Q(k) implies P(k), but generally P(k) does not imply Q(k). The main result of the paper is that for chain complete ordered sets P(k) implies Q(k). In fact, the author proves some stronger result. For F a subset of P, let \(C_ F\) be the set of maximal chains in P disjoint with F and call S an F-cutset if S meets every chain in \(C_ F\). Let \(P_ F(k)\), \(Q_ F(k)\) denote the following relativization of P(k), Q(k). \(P_ F(k):\) \(C_ F\) contains at most k pairwise disjoint chains; \(Q_ F(k):\) P contains an F-cutset with k elements. Then it holds: If P is chain complete, then for any \(F\subseteq P\) and any natural number k, \(P_ F(k)\) implies \(Q_ F(k)\) in P. The proof is technical and uses the Zorn's lemma. Futher, the following theorem is proved: If P contains one complete maximal chain, then P(1) implies Q(1) in P. Finally, some hypotheses about P(k)\(\to Q(k)\) are added.